Clothes hanger guard



Feb. 12, 1952 I K. YOUNGBLOOD CLOTHES HANGER GUARD Filed June 25, 1950 9 KnowZea .IozzwZZafl I ENTOR ATTORNEYS.

Patented Feb. 12, 1952 j-UNlTED STATES PATENT OFFICE y M 2,585,715 I CLOTHES HANGER GUARD Knowles Youngblood, Atlanta, Ga.

Application June 26, 1950, Serial No. 110,296

1 Claim.

' This invention relates to a trousers guard for clothes hangers. It is 'of course customary for cleaning establishments, in returning to a customer a cleaned garment such as a suit,'to use a wire clothes hanger integrally formed with a coat-supporting portion and a trousers rod. These Wire hangers are, additionally widely used in the home. In this connection, it is wellknown that the small diameter Wire trousers rod will cause a visible transverse crease in a pair of trousers hung thereon for any appreciable period of time, and this is undesirable in that it does not present a favorable appearance when the trousers are being worn. a

' Accordingly, many cleaning establishments utilize'trousers guards formed from cardboard or similar material, these being slipped over the trousers rod so as to provide a wide diameter member on which the trousers are supported, thus to reduce appreciably the possibility of an undesirable transverse crease appearing in the trousers when worn. In some instances; this trousers guard takes the form of a tube, while in other instances an elongated strip of cardboard or the like is bent or curved transversely and fitted over thetrousers rod.

oftentimes, the trousers guard will, when made in the latter form, slip bodily from the rod, causing the trousers to fall. And, on other occasions, the smooth surface of the guard fails to provide a grip for the trousers, as a result of which the trousers "-slip from the guard, especially when carelessly'hung in a manner to cause one side of the depending pair of trousers to overweight the other side. In either instance the accidental dropping of the trousers from the garment hanger is obviously a source of considerable annoyance;- both to cleaning establishments and to others.

It is, accordingly, the broad object of the present invention to eliminate the difficulties which'have heretofore persisted, by the provision of a trousers guard of novel construction, so designed as'toremain in its, appointed position upon the trousers rod without possibility of slippage therefrom, and which will additionally be so formed as to set up a gripping action upon the supported trousers, in a manner to eliminate to all intents and purposes the possibility of the trousers falling from the guard.

It is another object of importance to provide a trousers guard which will meet the purposes recited immediately above, and which will yet be capable of production at no increase in cost 5 above the cheapest form of trousers guard which has heretofore been devised, namely, the transversely bent cardboard strip.

Still another object is to provide a trousers guard which will meet the several purposes hereinbefore stated, but which will nevertheless be capable of application to a garment hanger with the same speed and ease as has heretofore been possible in respect to guards not having the desirable characteristics of the present invention.

Still another important object is to provide a trousers guard as described which will have the aforementioned desirable characteristics, and which will yet not be weakened in strength by the provision of said features in the guard.

Consideringthe objects of the invention more specifically, it is an object of the invention to provide a pants guard formed from a blank of ordinary cardboard or other fibrous stock, that will be readily capable of being curved or bent transversely so as to straddle a trousers rod of conventional design, and which will be formed with a plurality of spaced-apart longitudinal slits extending along the crest of the upwardly bowed guard, said slits being formed in such a manner as to define opposed series of teeth in which one series of teeth points in one direction and one series points in an opposite direction, said teeth being automatically provided by the weight of the trousers, that impart to the strip the transversely bowed formation thereof, and said teeth frictionally grippingthe supported trousers in a manner to prevent slippage in either direction.

With the foregoing and other objects in view which will appear as the description proceeds, the invention consists of certain novel details 01' construction and combinations of parts, hereinafter more fully described and pointed out in the claim, it :being understood that changes may be made in the construction and arrangement of parts'without departing from the spirit of the invention as claimed;

Referring to the drawings Fig. 1 is an elevational view of a conventional clothes hanger equipped with a trousers guard formed in accordance with the present invention. Fig. 2 is a plan view of the blank from which the trousers guard is formed. 1

Fig. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary perspective view of one end of the guard and associated portion of the hanger.

Fig. 4 is a view, still further enlarged taken transversely of the guard and trousers rod on line 4-4 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 5 is an enlarged fragmentary detail top I plan view of a portion of the guard in which its portion of theloop, with" which the'rod intersects to define acute-angled end portions 4 of the hanger.

This construction is conventional per :se, and is merely illustrative of one form of clothes hanger to which the invention can be readily applied.

The trousers guard constituting the present invention is generally designated 5, and reference should first be had to Fig. 2, wherein is illustrated a blank from which the guard is :formed. As-seen from Fig. 2, this blank comprises an elongated narrow approximately 1 rectangular or oblong piece of material, this material generally being cardboard "or other fibrous stock having the desired qualities of low cost and adaptability for ready cutting and-bending to final shape.

'In accordance with the invention, there is formed in the guard, along a line extending longitudinally and centrally thereof, the end slits fi opening at opposite ends of the guard, to receive the acute-angled corner portions l of thehangergthus :to holdzthe guard securely in place upon the hanger without possibility of slipping neither laterally or longitudinally of the trousersrod. The slits 61in the present instance, but not necessarily, are of a saw tooth design, and at'the inner ends of said short slits 6, there can'be formedears "l bendable upwardly to'provide a space of sufficient size to permit the passage therethrough .of i-the'wire material from which the hanger is formed.

' Formed in line with the end "of :slits 6, that is, along a line extended longitudinally and centrallyoffthe guard, is alongitudinal series of spaced slits each of which 'is of saw toothed formation, so 'as to define along the opposite edges of each slit a row :of teeth '8. pointing transversely 'of the guardin one direction, and a row of teeth 9 .intervening between said teeth Band pointing transversely of the guard'in the opposite direction. .Each tooth of said opposite rows "offteeth extendsacross the longitudinal center line of the guard, that is, the base .of each tooth is disposed to one side of said center line; while the point of thesame tooth is dis-. posed at the other. side of said center line. As seen from Figs. 2:01' 5, .each slit is "so cut that portions. thereof extend obliquely 'of the .longitudinalcenterlineofthe guard .in onedirection,

while other portions connect the first-named portions :and are extended obliquelyof saidv center line in reverse direction. As a result, the definition of each pair of adjacent teeth '9 results Assuming that the guard is to be applied to a garment hanger, the guard is applied while still more or less flat, so as to cause the acuteangled corner portions 1 of the hanger to be entered into the slits 6. Subsequently, the application of a pair of trousers to the guard causes said trousers to weight down the opposite sides of the guard, so as to impart to the guard a transversely bowed or arched formation having depending side-portions 10 extending E'longitudinally of the guard, the 'guard" straddling the trousers rod 3 as clearly shown in Fig. 4.

The weighting down of the side portions l0 disposed at opposite sides of the center line causes the teeth 8 and 9 to be inclined upwardly out of the normal fiat plane of the trousers guard. and .tocross as shown in Fig. 4. In other words, the weighted down side portion [0 seenat the right in Fig. 4 pulls downwardly upon the base of each tooth 8, and since there is nothing 'torhold down thepoint of'the tooth "disposed on the opposite side of the center line, the-tooth '8 becomes inclined upwardly as seen in Fig. 4. Thesame action occurs with respect to the teeth 9.

The result of this action is to 'causethe. teeth 8 and the teeth 9 to exert a frictional grip upon the trousers supported thereupon, so as towprevent the trousers from slipping from the-guard. It is to be noted, that the frictional grip :is exerted in opposite directions, and is in. almost direct opposition to the line of movement of the supported trousers, regardless of the direction in which said trousers would tend to slip, that is, there are teeth opposing slippage of the trousers in one direction, and other teethopposing slippage of the trousers in the other-idirection off the guard.

What is claimed is:

A trousers guard adapted to be supportedon the trousers ,rod of a garment hanger having upwardly and inwardly extending coat supporting members, said trousers guard comprisingaan elongated blank of bendable material having relatively :short slits midway between opposite sides :thereof which open: through oppositeends thereof to receive the coat supper-ting members of a garment hanger, said .blank :also having relatively short longitudinally spaced-slits of serrated formation extending therethrough midway between opposite sides thereof, irgand..-said last named "slits forming longitudinally'spaced rows of'upwardly inclined substantially --V -shaped teeth when the blank is bent along its longitudinal axis with the points :of :the teeth of teach row lying onthe side of the longitudinal-ax opposite their respective bases.

YOUNGBLOOD.

v REFERENCES- CITED The following references are of record in "the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS 

